Day 116 - At home at Carnarvon

Nought to report other than we have the washing and ironing done, clothes put away, a clean car and a freshly baked cake in the cake tin.  We went nowhere today but have been very busy.

Denham tomorrow.

Day 115 - Carnarvon

We had intended today to head out to Kennedy Range National Park but it is 210km away to the east and we are not prepared to head east just yet.  A large portion of the road was gravel and then there would be the gravel roads to get from place to place within the Park, so wisdom overtook desire and we stayed around Carnarvon.

What we did see around Carnarvon were:

• one mile jetty - rebuilt in 1998 and still looking a little worse for wear.  It is actually 1495 metres long.  There was a marine museum there too

300714 One Mile Jetty

300714 A lifeboat from the German cruiser Kormarund at the museum

• Pelican Point from where we could see Carnarvon from across the water

300714 Carnarvon from Pelican Point

• Chinaman Pool, permanent water in the Gascoyne River.  This was very poorly presented, probably because it is outside Carnarvon's protective levee and subject to regular flooding

300714 Chinaman's Pool with pelican

• Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum, which celebrates Carnarvon's role in manned space programs and in the Australian communications industry.  Key features are on The Carnarvon Tracking Station for NASA's Apollo, Gemini and Skylab programs and the OTC Satellite Earth 

300714 The 30m antenna for relaying NASA communications
via the Pacific Ocean

300714 The Gnome at home in the Space & Technology Museum
with a working 60's B&W television

300714 Other support equipment for the Carnarvon Tracking Station

• The technology site was atop the Brown Range about 6km from Carnarvon and there were some good views of crops growing nearby.

300714 Protective material over crops at Carnarvon

300714 Banana plantations at Carnarvon

Later in the day we bought custard apple ice creams and another serving of prawns, the later for an entree this evening to go with freshly caught snapper.  Well, one should not be surprised.  We are in a fruit growing area by the sea.

Day 114 - 150km north of Carnarvon

On a beautiful sunny day we headed north from Carnarvon to see what the coast was like. Before we reached the coast we passed by the southern end of Lake McLeod, a dry salt lake which must be at least 100km long and 30km wide.  Dampier Salt mines salt from the lake and takes it a few kilometres to a purpose built jetty, from which the salt is exported.

290714 A wreck on the edge of Lake McLeod - wouldn't normally park there

Our first stopping point was the Quobba Blowholes at Point Quobba.  There was an offshore wind blowing and the tide was full.  This did not stop the water blowing through the holes up to 20m into the air.  On our return the wind had turned to on shore and if anything, the blows were better.  The waves crashing into the low cliffs were a sight in their own right.  

290714 The Blowholes from the Point Quobba

290714 The Blowholes up close

290714 The rock shelf - source of the holes

290714 Looking south from the Blowholes

290714 The Blowholes later in the day

290714 Later in the day, the blowholes with an offshore wind

Next port of call was a memorial to the HMAS Sydney, which was sunk in 1941 80km offshore by the German cruiser HSK Kormoran, with all 645 lives lost. 

290714 The HMAS Sydney Memorial

290714 Station identification

We saw many views of waves crashing into cliffs as we progressed further northwards.  We stopped at the site of the wreck of the Korean Star, a ship which foundered on the cliffs 30 years ago.  The cliffs were about 60m high and nearby we could see Dampier Salt's loading jetty.  We did see a couple of whales off the point at this spot.  The water was crystal clear when viewed from the cliff-top.

290714 Looking north from Point Quobba

290714 Cliffs and waves further north

290714 Site of the Korean Star wreck with Dampier Salt's jetty in the distance

Another 60 km north and we were at Red Bluff.  This is a popular camping and surfing spot.  There was a great point surf, which was working well with what had become a SW offshore wind.  Camping is spartan and the facilities are minimal.  There was a lovely white sandy beach and because there was no offshore reef, the waves were sizeable and "dumping".  Rock fishing would be the order of the day for enthusiasts at many places along this rough and dangerous coast. 

290714 Red Bluff

290714 The point surf at Red Bluff

290714 Looking north from the beach at Red Bluff

We did see a number of wild goats which seemed to live in harmony with the sheep that were there too.

290714 Wild goats - very healthy

Unfortunately the gravel road deteriorated as we went further north, which took a bit of the gloss off what was otherwise a very interesting day.

We passed over the Gascoyne River on the way home.  It is a large river with little permanent water in it.

Day 113 - Carnarvon

Ho - hum (yawn).  Today was a day of little to do.  It was sunny and very windy and not very conducive to doing touristy things.  Sadly, there do not seem to be too many touristy things to do, but we will do our best in the next few days.  After trying unsuccessfully to get the car serviced this week we went shopping.  The results are best recorded in the picture below.  We need a relaxing day occasionally so we made the best of it today.

280714 Lunch on a lay day at Carnarvon - and they were fresh and yummy!

Day 112 - Exmouth to Carnarvon

383km today from Exmouth to Carnarvon. The countryside for the first 150km was a repeat of the spinifex covered sand dunes we covered a few days ago, including many termite mounds but thereafter it was less interesting.  

270714 Company we had at morning tea

Short acacia bushes of car height along the roadside meant we did not see a lot of the more distant countryside but it was obvious the same trees extended as far as the eye could see, across undulating plains.  The land was in poor condition and this may be due in part to the presence of wild goats.  The story goes that the pastoralists make more money out of the wild goats they capture than they do from their sheep and cattle.  The goats are slaughtered Halal style and the meat is exported to Muslim countries.

Much to our surprise things changed as we approached the Gascoyne River nearer to Carnarvon.  We came across banana plantations, cornfields, vineyards, vegetable gardens etc.  This apparently is an strong agricultural area.  We can now say we have left the Pilbara and have entered what the West Australians call "The Gascoyne".  

We should not forget that we deviated 12km from the main road and looked into the famous Coral Bay. It is a delightful bay with white sand beaches washed by the inevitable turquoise blue of the Indian Ocean, under the protection of the Ningaloo Reef, a short distance offshore. It is heavily commercialised and the two caravan parks looked to be rather full.  Nonetheless it would be a wonderful spot for families with young children.  We saw it at its best with the sun shining and a gentle breeze ruffling the water as it caressed the sand.

270714 Coral Bay from a nearby hill

270714 Ningaloo Reef at Coral Bay

270714 Coral Bay

270714 A bay south of Coral Bay

270714 One of the caravan parks at Coral Bay

We enjoyed our few days in Exmouth and were delighted that we were sent a departure representative, a full grown emu.

270814 Exmouth Departure Representative

We came across some wildflowers new to us.  Heaven knows how many we missed passing by at 100km/h.

270714 "New" wildflowers

270714 "New" wildflowers up close

270714 Another wildflower

Day 111 - Cape Range National Park and Ningaloo Marine Park

Toady, on a simply stunning day, we motored 200k as we visited Cape Range National Park and The Ningaloo Marine Park.   The road is on the western side of the peninsula and stretches for about 85km from Vlamingh Head to Yardie Creek.  There are many access points along the road to the equally many beaches.  Most beaches are similar with whitish sand, lapped by emerald water with the Ningallo Reef running at various distances from the beach, providing calm waters for swimming, snorkelling or fishing.  White foaming breakers marked the outer edge of the reef.

We visited some of the beaches, the nicest of which would have been Turquoise Bay, which was true to name.  The Milyering Discovery Centre was a source of information for the whole area.  An unexpected bird hide was available to the public at Mangrove Bay and, yes, we did see some birds.

The sealed road ended at Yardie Creek, where there was a gorge with permanent water fed from the ocean.  We were too late for the boat trip up the gorge so we walked a fair way into it, across the rim.  The trail became too rugged for us.  So we struggled back and had a cuppa under some she oaks by the side of the creek instead.

We called into Vlamingh Head on the way back and were fortunate to see some whales swimming not more than 400m from the shore.  They were difficult to photograph from the top of the Heads.

If you were a serious fisherman, this would be a good place to come, if the number of boats around is any indication.  Also, Toyota and Nissan would be rapt, because most of the towing vehicles are their 4WD.

260714 Typical beach, whitish sand, turquoise water,
Ningaloo Reef offshore and waves breaking on the reef

260714 Sometimes the reef is close inshore

260714 Cars with boat trailers at Tantabiddi

260714 The bird hide at Mangrove Bay

260714 Lunch at Lakelands

260714 Turquoise Bay

260714 More of Turquoise Bay

260714 Yardie Creek sea entrance

260714 Yardie Creek Gorge

260714 Further up Yardie Creek Gorge

260714 Whales frolicking off Vlamingh Heads

Day 110 - Charles Knife Gorge

Today dawned a typical Exmouth day, sunny but there was a chill wind, at least early in the day.  What to do?  Why not go down to Shothole Canyon and Charles Knife Gorge, both of which are on the eastern side of the Cape Range.  

Alas we started poorly.  The Shothole Canyon road was "shotholed" due to severe flooding a few weeks ago and "Road Closed" sign looked pretty authoritative.

We soldiered on to Charles Knife Gorge Road and in the distance we could see the road winding up over the range.  "Be still my beating heart", this looked like a real goer. That is exactly what it was.

We looked back down from the range as we rose and a beautiful view emerged looking across to the blue waters of Exmouth Gulf, north to Exmouth town and south to goodness knows how far - absolutely fabulous.

The road wound across the top of the range and on both sides we saw spectacular views of two gorges, two for the price of one.  By this time the road had changed to gravel and we barely noticed.

We drove to the end of the road and were surprised to see the wellhead for the Rough Range 2 well drilled by Wapet back in the 60's.  It was dry. 

The return drive was every bit as spectacular and we were left only bemusing our fate and wondering what we missed at Shothole Gorge.

250714 Charles Knife Gorge Road leading up the Cape Range

250714 From the top of the range looking south

250714 The Gorge on the LHS

250714 The gorge on the RHS.  Believe it or not the green is spinifex

250714 The Gorge on the LHS

250714 The Gorge on the LHS

250714 More of the Gorge on the LHS

250714 More of the Gorge on the RHS

250714 The road across the top of the range

250714 A panoramic view of the LHS gorge

250714 A panoramic view of the RHS gorge

250714 Don't think the tree stands a chance

250714 The well head from the dry Rough Range 2 well

250714 The plaque above the well

250714 The marina at Exmouth